Table of contents for 14-Feb-2019 in Pick Me Up!

Running around my Auntie Enid’s garden playing hide-and-seek with my big sister Louise, is one of my favourite memories. We’d go to stay with her sometimes for the weekend and we’d run her ragged! But she was full of smiles and twinkling eyes and would always spoil us with treats! She even taught me how to play the keyboard. It all started with a toy piano but then, on my 11th birthday, I unwrapped my pressie to find a large Yamaha keyboard! ‘Here let me show you,’ she smiled popping it on our laps. We tinkered with the keys as I got to grips and, before long, I’d mastered my very first song, Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence. I don’t play the keyboard any more but my daughter…

1 Keep it gentle ‘Lower back pain could be due to a simple muscular sprain or tear from a sport injury, heavy lifting or poor posture,’ says LloydsPharmacy pharmacist Anshu Bhimbat. ‘Staying active when experiencing pain could involve anything from gentle yoga to a low-impact endurance exercise like swimming.’ 2 Walk on One walk a day is all you need to keep muscles mobile and mood boosted. ‘The nervous system interprets moods, emotions and how we experience pain, meaning that there can be a strong relationship between sensations of pain and mood,’ explains Anshu. 3 Get support ‘Pain clinics and pain-management services can be very effective at helping patients self-manage their pain,’ says Anshu. Visit your local LloydsPharmacy for details of its free Pain Management Service.…

Kidney infection 1 A kidney infection is a painful illness usually caused by the common bladder infection cystitis. ■ True ■ False 2 Symptoms include a stabbing headache and persistent nausea. ■ True ■ False 3 Kidney infections cannot be treated with antibiotics. ■ True ■ False 4 If left untreated, it can cause permanent kidney damage. ■ True ■ False 1 TRUE Most people with cystitis don’t get a kidney infection, but occasionally bacteria can travel from the bladder to the kidneys. 2 FALSE You may feel generally unwell and need to pee often and urgently. Pee may also be painful, cloudy, bloody or smelly. 3 FALSE Antibiotics will clear up the infection and you should start to feel better after two weeks. 4 TRUE See your GP as…

Real Techniques Stick & Dry Brush Drying Rack, £14.99, Superdrug Cleaning your make-up brushes just got even easier! This sturdy silicone rack sticks to any glossy surface and peels off with no sticky residue, letting you leave your brushes upside down to dry in the bathroom. Verdict: GENIUS! Another beauty dilemma solved. Hair Lights, £10.99, firebox.com Perfect for any festivals this summer – these tiny fairy lights have been designed to be weaved into your hair and held in place with cute flower-shaped clips. Just be sure not to use them when it’s raining… Verdict: BONKERS! When doesnÕt it rain during festivals?! Verdict: GENIUS! What we’ve been weighting for! Hi Mirror Smart Body Scale, £111, amazon.co.uk Putting your average scales to shame, this clever set measures…

Link Games These are special-event bingo games that bring together selected rooms, offering the chance to win an even bigger Full House. We offer two types of Link Games on Pick Me Up! Bingo: 1. Value and game type Rooms with the same ticket price and the same game types get linked for one game (for example, 10p tickets and 90-ball bingo). 2. Game type Rooms of the same game type (for example, 90-ball bingo) come together for one game and the ticket price will change to one matching value for this game. You can see the Link Game symbol of two gold rings at the top of the game while you’re taking part, and in the main menu Bingo page. SuperLinks Games Bingo just got even more exciting! Join…

Aldi Pomegranate No 3 Luxury Hand & Body Lotion, £2.49 If you want a more subtle scent than perfume, or to boost your favourite fragrance, choose a lotion with expensive-smelling notes like this one. The pomegranate scent’s so luxurious, you’ll want to keep topping up all day. Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Stretch Mark Lotion, £4.75 The ultimate problem solver! Brimful with pure cocoa butter, shea butter, natural oils, collagen, elastin and lutein, this has all you need to keep skin supple, plus reduce the appearance of stretch marks. Dove DermaSpa Summer Revived Gradual Self Tan, £7.79 Get a year-round glow with this take on Dove’s classic gradual tanning lotion. With natural seed oils, it smooths and conditions as it colours. Apply liberally (the less you use, the greater the risk of…

Wiping the sweat off my brow, I grinned. ‘Another great session,’ I panted, setting down a 180kg weight. ‘Like always!’ my fiance Chris, 31, grinned, flexing his muscles. It was August 2018 and Chris and I were working out in our home gym together. And as exhausting and challenging as it could be, we loved the thrill that pushing our bodies brought. Between us, we’d won 11 powerlifting titles, but it hadn’t always been my first choice... As a teenager, I’d played basketball and hockey at school, and loved being active. Then at uni, I’d joined the gym. A size-10/12, I was by no means big. But my goal wasn’t to lose weight. I wanted to increase my fitness and become stronger. But I soon hit a snag. Pounding a…

SURREY Jay Fenton, 22 Thousands of pounds, weapons and a supply of class A drugs were seized after a high-speed pursuit through Dorking. Number-plate recognition showed the silver BMW, driven by Jay Fenton, 22, from Hackney, east London, had previously failed to stop for police. The chase, last December, ended when Fenton crashed the car. He’d stashed £3,700 cash in his underwear. In the glove box police found two knives, and a sniffer dog led officers to  drugs inside a holdall. Charged with intent to supply cocaine and heroin, dangerous driving, possession of criminal property and possession of a bladed article in a public place, Fenton pleaded guilty at Guildford Crown Court and was jailed for three years, eight months. BEDFORDSHIRE Paul Hayman, 36 Four burglaries in Luton in June…

As another toy flew past my head, I ducked and made my way towards my 8-year-old son William. He was in a rage, yelling and throwing things at me and my husband Jez, 53. ‘I hate you!’ he screamed. ‘It’s OK, calm down,’ I said. We were no strangers to our son’s terrifying meltdowns. The problems began in March 2017, when he suddenly became afraid of buttons. It had come out of nowhere - and to begin with, I didn’t think too much of it. But it quickly developed into a full-blown phobia. William couldn’t bear to wear any clothes with buttons, would break down in terror at the sight of them. We had to get permission from his school to let him wear a T-shirt under his jumper, instead…

Just like every other evening, I lay in my bed howling in agony. It had been a nightly routine since I’d started having a constant, strong, aching pain in my legs, aged 5. It wasn’t just at night I suffered. During the day, I struggled with stairs, and couldn’t walk for very long without collapsing in agony. The GP told my parents that they were just growing pains, but as I entered my teens, my joints began to dislocate constantly and I was unable to straighten my knees. At the age of 13, I was finally diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). ‘It’s a condition affecting connective tissue,’ the doctor explained. And I was devastated to learn that my condition, which also affected my organs, had no cure. In 2002, aged…

Perching my laptop on my baby bump, I logged into an app called BabyCentre. Not long now, I wrote, before laughing at some of the other posts written by fellow excited mums-to-be. It was June 2016, and I was eight months pregnant with my first child. I’d joined a parenting group called ‘BC July16’ on the app - it was for mums expecting their babies the following month. It was a fab support group with over 200 other women with close due dates. We posted questions, shared our experiences and provided support. ‘It’s great knowing they’re all going through the same thing,’ I told my hubby Jon, 28. I had a smooth pregnancy. But any question or worry I had, I could turn to the group. A million terrifying thoughts…

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These’ll bowl you over! Fruit Bowl Yogurt Flakes are only 95 calories a bag and make a tasty snack to tide you over from one meal to the next. Made with fruit puree flakes and coated in yogurt, they’re gluten-free, too. Just £1.50 at Asda (usually £2.11) until 20 February. Makes scents Visit The Perfume Shop and snap up Emporio Armani Diamonds (100ML) for £39.99 (RRP £70) until 14 February. Sweet and sticky treat… Clarks Original Maple Syrup is simply delicious drizzled over porridge and pancakes adding flavour and a sweet stickiness that’s hard to beat. As well as being a vegan alternative to honey it has 45% less sugar than refined white sugar, too. It’s only £1.50 at Morrisons (usually £2) until 19 February. Square bites to go round……

Stop the aggro! Q I’m argumentative at home, especially if work is stressful. I cool down quickly, but we can have a tense few days. What’s the best way of reducing this friction? Linda, Windsor A Communicate more with your family and be aware of rising stress levels to steer away from an initial explosion. If it happens, prompt physical apologies, such as hugs, can reduce negative emotions lingering and improve wellbeing. Reducing the risk Q There’s some family history of hormone-sensitive breast cancer in my family (unrelated to the faulty gene) and I’m wondering how I can reduce my risk of getting breast cancer? Sharon, Hull A The most effective way of regulating hormone (oestrogen) levels in your blood is to maintain a healthy weight and exercise regularly. Obesity…

Give yourself a lift Have a soak Scientists at Loughborough University found that having a long, relaxing soak in a hot bath triggers the release of a body chemical that combats inflammation in the same way as exercise, and can lower your blood sugar levels and blood pressure. HEALTH TIP Have you tried… Swish To Go mouthwash sachets? These amazing little sachets (£3 for six, Boots) clean your teeth and freshen your breath in just 10 seconds – any place, any time. Perfect for throwing in your handbag or desk drawer, Swish sachets don’t need water, a brush or a sink, so you can be prepared, no matter what. 1.8 That’s how many years are slashed from the average lifespan due to air pollution, according to the Energy Policy Institute…

When Raymond Fernandez met Martha Beck, it was the start of a twisted union. The pair met when Beck, 28, responded to a lonely-hearts ad, placed by Fernandez, 33. He was looking for a woman to seduce and rob of her wealth - a plot in which he’d already succeeded before he and Beck met. She was twice-divorced, overweight, with a troubled childhood. With two young children from her failed relationships, she yearned to be loved. After serving in World War II, Fernandez decided to leave his home in Spain, and return to America, where he’d grown up. However, on the journey he suffered a head injury and suspected brain damage. Left bald, he wore a cheap, black toupee to cover his head, and his injuries apparently led to a…

Sabah Khan first met her older sister Saima’s fiance Hafeez Rehman when she was just 10 years old. Eleven years older, Hafeez soon became like a big brother to Sabah. Not long after Saima, 17, and Hafeez, 21, were married, they moved into a large semidetached home in Luton. The family were close, and they invited Sabah and the two sisters’ retired parents to live with them, too. Hafeez worked long hours as a taxi driver, while Saima worked as a carer. So, when the couple had their daughter in 2009, Sabah would often babysit. But a few years later, in 2012, her relationship with her sister’s husband changed. A sexual attraction grew between the pair and they started a secret affair. They’d have sex in Hafeez’s taxi and in…

It’s a real shame to throw a marriage away over snoring. There’d have to be deeper  issues involved to consider actually divorcing, surely? I couldn’t do it, as there is help out there, including sleeping apart. Manisa Kuinkel, Harrow Snoring is something beyond the sleeper’s control – it’s not fair to punish them for it. I can’t  understand the logic of divorcing over this. I do snore, but my husband is much worse than me, so I just try to make sure that I get to sleep first! Kelly Imrie, Hurlford I can see how couples might be driven to despair. Spending every night next to someone making so much  noise is infuriating, with frustration spilling into daytime. Surviving it depends how willing the snorer is to seek help. There’s…

MOST MODIFIED MARRIED COUPLE Gabriela and Victor Hugo Peralta have shared this Guinness World Record title since 2014. Not only are they covered in tattoos, but they also boast at least 50 piercings between them, as well as decorative scars and implants. MOST MARATHONS COMPLETED BY A MARRIED COUPLE David and Linda Major, who are in their 50s, have completed a total of 1,063 marathons since they started running in the 1990s. They became the world-record holders for the category in 2013. WORLD’S DEEPEST UNDERWATER WEDDING Diving instructors Hiroyuki Yoshida and Sandra Smith tied the knot at a record 130m below the surface, in a cave at Song Hong Lake, Trang, Thailand in 2013. They took off their breathing apparatus just long enough to kiss!…

ARIES 21 March–20 April Love and hate are blurred this week. No longer are you so sure about the right thing to do. Instead, it’s all about trying to keep what must remain under wraps as a secret. Honesty, however, reveals others knew more than they admitted. Call: 09058 170 710* TAURUS 21 April–21 May Try not to dismiss ideas proposed by others this Valentine’s week, as you’ll find that it’s the alternative view which will, in fact, bring the success that both you and other folk desire in the weeks ahead. Use an old skill and contacts to get up to speed with current projects. Call: 09058 170 711* GEMINI 22 May–21 June You need to pull your weight a little more right now – on both a personal…